Synopses & Reviews
Three stories present three portraits of young men learning the realities of adult life. Boxing takes us into the world of gyms, a world of bodies and nerves stretched to the limit, of sacrifice and challenge. Two young men confront each other in the fight of their lives: one of them is well-to-do, a model student whose his skills have never been put to the test; the other, although poor and deaf, is stubborn, determined, and wins fights easily. Now they face the ultimate testthe encounter on which not only their present but also their future depends. Horses presents the wide open spaces of the countryside. Here, two brothers, both given horses by their father, confront each other sensing that two different destinies are opening up for them. The Monkey is about the fragility of identity, the desire to escape it and disappear. When Nico discovers that his boyhood friend Piero has made the sudden, shocking decision to become a monkey, he is led to question the basis on which he has lived his own life.
Review
"The greatest addition to Italian literature for a very long time." Il Domenicale
Review
"Pietro Grossi has written three exemplary talesthree stories that you wished you had written yourself." La Repubblica
Review
"'Boxing' is as good a contemporary short story as I have read in years. . . . There is more power and pathos in this short piece of spare, timeless prose than in most densely-written novels. . . . All three tales are artful but seemingly effortless, a quality shared by Howard Curtis's translation, which feels elegantly natural." Independent
Review
"His passion for Hemingway, Faulkner and Philip Roth can be seen in this simple, precise and intense writing." Il Giornale
Review
"A perfect book." Il Sole 24 Ore
About the Author
Fists is Pietro Grossi's second book for which he won the Premio Cocito Monta d’Alba prize. Howard Curtis is a recipient of the John Florio Italian Translation Prize of the Translators’ Association of Great Britain and has been short-listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.